I met Clara on other matters yesterday afternoon however we talked about my dissertation as well. 

Some great stuff in this article that I first read for the EDC10 course. Cited text indented, followed in turn by my comments.

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Or to use Clara's full phrase, "crippled by the fear of submitting something s**t."

That pretty much sums up the stage I reached last night after a week of slow progress on the research proposal. I'd met Clara to talk about my contribution to Online Assessment 2013 however it was too good an opportunity to ignore, to update Clara on my progress. She didn't seem impressed by the subject, however it was useful to hear her use the above phrase to describe how she feels about her own Phd work. Further reassurance and guidance followed in her encouragement to view the research proposal as a working document rather than "something cut in stone." She went on to suggest that if the content of the proposal isn't up to scratch its the function of that document - and the role of the dissertation supervisor - to move things forward.

Which is my task for this evening. I need to get a proposal as close to done and dusted as possible. Even if I think it's a bit, ah, mediocre. It's going to be a late night.

Over the last hour I've gone from being quite content about the idea of taken an open and broad view of 'assessment practices in the multimodal classroom' to recognising that idea as being much too broad in scope. I've drifted off topic at some point over the last while. That topic would be interesting, but wouldn't allow for depth (over breadth) and, realistically, I don't expect I would be offering anything original to discourse of the subject.

So here then in largetype is a reminder that - as proposed to Sian recently - the focus will be upon how tutors measure the quality of multimodal or alternative format work in the digital classroom. Once again as a reminder to myself, this isn't a case of practices being done unto tutors, it's more a case of how they go about it.

OK, I need to redraft my proposal-in-progress and come up with a new dissertation title. 

That can wait until tomorrow, though. It hasn't been a successful day in terms of making progress on the proposal itself, but there has been some important late progress, nevertheless.

Or to put it another way, what am I trying to do? After a day of redrafting my dissertation research proposal it's become clear that I'm still unclear exactly what I'm trying to do. For clarity (or perhaps that should be, in search of clarity), I'm going to note below the different things I've been thinking of doing within my latest version of the dissertation.

As I've tried to work up the dissertation proposal however, I encountered a number of problems:

I also need to make clear (in my own head) the relationship between multimodality and alternative format assessment. 

Whereas I was recently intending to consider how tutors respond to the challenges posed by alternative format assignments (whether on a strategic or case-by-case basis) I wonder instead whether I should be looking assessment practices in more general terms. But then maybe that's too broad (or probably already covered). Maybe instead I should focus on how to measure quality of an alternative format assignment whilst making it clear that this shouldn't necessarily be seen as problematic - from the programme design perspective it can be advantageous. It's really important then that I frame this project in a way that doesn't present tutor/programme designers as being reactive or coming from a deficit position.

Following on from the feeling of dissertation panic with which I awoke this morning, I've been thinking about what I can do to help me nail the research proposal by the end of the weekend. For starters, I'm going to privilege study ahead of football tomorrow (and one day I may even grow up to be a full adult.) I'm going to stop dwelling on the barriers that are preventingI'm also trying to create conditions that will help me study, removing distractions where possible and trying to make best use of the time that I have. I've also lined up some music to create a soundtrack conducive to concentration and study.

Things to avoid directly before sleep on a Friday night:

1. Trying to make late night dissertation progress at the end of a tiring week
   
2. Watching Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes 
3. Eating a ham and cheese bagel whilst doing the above

In the nightmare my incomplete dissertation not only received a low mark in itself, but also meant that the scores for my previous coursework assignments had to be reduced in line with the mediocrity of my work in the final stage of the MSc. Although things can't manifest quite this way in reality, the threat of a weak dissertation undermining all the good work that has led up to this stage is very real. I really don't want to make my existing recurring duo of study-related nightmares to turn into a trilogy.

The phrase 'wake up call' could have been created for this occasion. 
  
Which is why I'm sitting here with Joe asleep on my lap, typing one-handed and thinking about my research proposal with new vigour. Tired, but with a new sense of purpose (and a sense of menace.)

Perhaps the least imaginative title that I will give to any entry in the life of this blog.

Nevertheless, I've just looked out the feedback from the three Research Methods assignments. For some reason I'd forgotten how well (consider the circumstances at the time) I did in those assignments. I achieved a 65, 70 and 72 which I remember writing at the time were perhaps the marks I was most happy to have achieved on the MSc programme to date. It has also been a boost to see that I am capable of undertaking the work required for the dissertation. If the RM course is a preparation and form of rehearsal for the dissertation itself, it's one that I've shown I am equipped to undertake.

The next step is to look over the feedback from these assignments (uploaded to the dissertation resources page of this site) to see what I can take forward into my current work. Most pressing is the need to look at the research proposal - and in particular the feedback on that proposal - with a view to drafting my dissertation proposal by the end of the week.

Quick off the draw, Amy has replied to my e-mail where I outlined my dissertation plans. A positive response:

I've replied to Amy this evening to suggest that we meet up soon.

I'm really glad that I contacted Natasa Lackovic and that I took time to speak to her during her time at Edinburgh University earlier this year. From what I know of Natasa she is a shining star in her field therefore, just as with members of the MSc in E-Learning team and with Michael and Jeremy, I'm going to try to learn as much from her as possible. It was really good then to get a reply to the message that I sent on Friday, including the offer to continue our discussions. 

This evening I've replied to Natasa thanking her and taking up her offer of some suggested reading within multimodality. I've also said that I'll get in touch again to discuss my research once it's a bit more formed.